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Originally Posted by WrestleZone Earlier today a report from The Wrestling Observer claimed WWE ordered Roman Reigns to apologize to the WWE locker room following news of his 30 day suspension for violating the company Wellness Policy. According to two sources within WWE, one of them being a talent on the roster, the apology never took place, and the timeframe for when the apology could have happened doesn’t quite compute. Both sources noted the WWE locker room was informed of Roman Reigns’ suspension on Tuesday, June 21st, when talents arrived for the Smackdown tapings, and no one was aware of it during or after Raw the previous night. Sources added Reigns simply packed his bags and left following the June 20th Raw taping, and if some type of speech or apology took place, it was not in front of the WWE locker room.

Originally Posted by Observer Next week’s Raw, on 7/4 from Columbus, OH, due to the holiday, is expected to be the lowest rated Raw in the history of the show. The record low is a 1.8 rating. Shane McMahon is expected to be back and they are locally advertising Cena & Ambrose vs. Rollins & Styles as the main event. Rusev vs. O’Neil in a U.S. title match is scheduled. The last two times July 4th came on a Monday were in 2005 and 2011. In 2005, Raw fell from a 4.4 rating on 6/27 to a 2.6, a 41 percent drop. In 2011, Raw fell from a 3.1 rating to a 2.4, a 23 percent drop. So we’re starting at a 2.21. Given that we’re down to a far more hardcore audience, the drop may be only 20 percent which would be a record low 1.77 rating. But it easily could be the first episode in history to hit a 1.7. A 23 percent drop would be 1.70, so unless today’s audience is die-hards that don’t leave the house on July 4th, that’s the probable range because there are no Cena returns like on Memorial Day to pull out. No matter what the number is, it’s not all that significant in the sense you’d worry about it. Really this week’s number was more significant more because it’s at this level without sports competition so where will it fall to against the NFL

Possible historical significance for next week's RAW.

Originally Posted by Observer Nothing was said to talent in specific about dates, but there was talk among the crew that Lucha Underground will start taping season four in January and wrestlers were given the impression there would be tapings in the winter. That gives them six months to sign needed deals and procure money to film another season. The show’s ratings in season two increased greatly from season one, but started falling off after the Aztec Warfare match. Still, the show makes no economic sense, often drawing less than 100,000 viewers and spending in excess of $400,000 per episode on production. The idea is to build up characters with the idea of making them big enough stars to do a movie and also merchandise it as a franchise, but they will never be strong enough to do that off El Rey. Overall viewership was way down in season two with the loss of UniMas, and they didn’t even have a Spanish language broadcast. The deals that were considered the key, a Spanish language deal with Univision in the U.S. and Televisa in Mexico both never happened.

Obvious” that his WWE release is a worked “soft release.” Initially told it’s an under-the-table deal orchestrated with Paul Levesque. Cody gets to leave for awhile, work with trendy indy stars, wash away the Stardust stink, and return with a workrate reputation from hardcore underground fans. Cody is apparently being paid by WWE instead of WWN Live to work Evolve! He’s also being paid by WWE during the rest of the “interim period.” Notice that Cody’s first indy date booked was with WWE-affiliated Evolve. Lanza has been “flat out told that Cody Rhodes has every intention of returning to WWE in the fall and doesn’t have any [indy] bookings beyond October [2016] right now.” Until Cody works for NJPW, ROH, or TNA, Lanza doesn’t buy that he truly left WWE. Cody was supposedly told he can’t work for NJPW or ROH; TNA wasn’t mentioned on the no-no list but no way Cody goes there if’s still under WWE contract. Lanza believes the WWE legends contract story reported by PWInsider’s Mike Johnson was planted and is part of the work. Johnson is a co-opted member of the WWE media team who leaked the false story that Evolve would become a pure WWE farm system and that would thus force Chris Hero out. It is obvious that Paul Levesque leaks this to Johnson; listen to NXT’s conference calls to connect the dots. Also, it isn’t WWE’s MO to offer a Legends contract to a non-retired wrestler in his athletic prime. Cody’s anger over this is obviously false.

From a recent episode of Voices of Wrestling podcast show. Some of the claims might be stretching a bit to support their theory but would explain some stuff about Cody taking indie dates while under a non-compete clause and his first match being at WWE-affiliated EVOLVE. Cody himself was also recently upset at the Legends deal being made public (story below).

Originally Posted by Observer Mark Carrano called Cody Runnels for a legends deal. At this point no agreement has been reached but Runnels wasn’t happy because the conversation was supposed to be confidential, and the next thing you know, there were reports Rhodes had called WWE trying to return

Originally Posted by Observer Starting on Wednesday, July 6th, wrestling icon Ric Flair will be returning to podcasting as part of the MLW Radio family. His team reached a deal with the Court Bauer-run MLWRadio.com to launch "The Ric Flair Show", released every Wednesday on their website, iTunes, and Stitcher. In a sense, Flair will replace Konnan on MLW Radio as he had left for a slot on Podcast One's new Chris Jericho programmed 'network'. Flair's previous show ("WOOOOOO! Nation" on CBS Radio's PlayIt) with host Conrad Thompson went on hiatus after Flair's contract expired and his side decided not to renew.

Originally Posted by Observer Jerry Lawler's holiday weekend got off to a good start Friday as domestic assault charges against he and his fiancee were dismissed in a Memphis, TN, courtroom. Later on in the day, his suspension from WWE was lifted, effective immediately according to Pro Wrestling Sheet.

According to police reports, they were unable to determine who was the main instigator of the incident which played a big role in all charges getting dropped for both people involved.

Originally Posted by Observer Luke Fordward, the CMLL wrestler known as Thunder, passed away today. Daniel Lopez, (Hall of Famer El Satanico), his trainer and the father of Fordward's girlfriend, had reported a few days ago that he was gravely ill and needed a miracle. It is believed that he passed away due to lung cancer.

Supposedly was one of the top stars for CMLL before having to take a break for illness reasons.

Originally Posted by Observer At a court hearing earlier this week, it was ruled that Armando Montalvo was competent to stand trial. Montalvo was the man shot in front of the WWE Performance Center in Orlando who had been harassing people at times and was all messed up in love with Lita at the time. His family stated he suffered from bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses. A pretrial hearing is set for 8/31.

Originally Posted by Observer Adam Rose talks what went wrong with is character on the main roster on the Pancakes and Powerslam Radio show: "I did a commercial, and once I did the commercial, I realized that we were going down the wrong path," said Rose. "I think on the main stage, it needed to be introduced as a heel, because it was so quirky and so different. I think if it was introduced as a heel, then people wouldn't have felt forced to love it, and then I felt that they would have naturally fell in love with certain parts of the quirkiness, and it would have naturally evolved to something or someone who people liked. I think that was a big mistake." Rose adds, "I think one of the hardest things to do in this industry is to get over as a babyface. Some people have a natural connection with the audience. [Someone] like Sami Zayn has a natural connection with the audience. I don't think Adam Rose had any with the audience because he was completely quirky and over-the-top and ridiculous. And I think that's why it would have been better introduced as a heel because your automatic reaction to seeing someone like that is not to like it." At the conclusion of Adam Rose's WWE career, he was placed in a misfit group named the Social Outcasts, along with Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, and Heath Slater. Rose admits that he had no idea about the group until he was given the idea only a few hours before the show started. "We had no idea," said Rose. "I think we were told about 5 o'clock on a Monday night that we were now going to be a group. I think we were four guys who the company saw had something, but we were doing nothing. So I think the idea was like, okay, let's put them together collectively in a group, and these are guys who don't know each other really well. I think the awkwardness of it was actually one of the reasons [why it worked]. You get all these well-polished teams, and the idea was for the faction to not be well-polished, and the idea was for us not to get along, to almost be bumping heads and trying to one-up each other the whole time. I think the Social Outcasts has talented individuals in it. I don't think the Social Outcasts is going to be a deal loss; I think it is going to be, given the right structure, could take off. But, it's all a matter of where you put it.

Originally Posted by Observer Roderick Strong is finishing up with PWG shortly as well as having left ROH, so that’s a WWE future. If he was with TNA, he’s still be working PWG. Plus, the whole Austin Aries story about how he’s changed minds about who can get over in WWE was related to Roderick Strong who people were closed-minded about for years in WWE the same way they had been regarding Aries

Also rumored to be among those likely getting a WWE deal are Mascara Dorada (CMLL already considers him gone once the deal ends), and Ricochet/Prince Puma (if WWE and LU can work out an early buyout deal since he's currently locked till 2018).

Originally Posted by Observer There is a lot of unhappiness surrounding the 8/11 to 8/14 tapings date that is on the schedule although not announced. Abyss, Jade, Andrew Everett and Drew Galloway were all booked on a tour on the U.K. during that period. I think there may have been another person as well because five TNA talents were pulled from a series of events where they would have earned considerably more than at the tapings. But they all have deals where TNA tapings come first. The promoters were hoping something could be worked out but it didn’t happen Not every contract signed of late has TNA in control of the talent’s bookings. The attempt has been made with the top guys that have been mentioned for that, but some talents have been given different deals. But that is the stip for the Hardys, Drew Galloway and Ethan Carter III, who have been offered new deals and at this point have not signed them

Some other sheet news includes:

• According to the Observer, WWE is starting to pipe in crowd reactions for NXT shows and stars with the crowd signing Nakamura's theme song as a recent example. Also being reported the WWE did the same during today's house show in Japan.
• PWI had a somewhat lengthy report regarding details about the on-going concussion lawsuits against the WWE and at the moment WWE appearing to be winning them all. The strongest case against the WWE, the Big Vito lawsuit, currently is getting torn apart by the judge handling the case. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/103...wsuit.html?p=1
• ROH's Silas Young revealed on Twitter he is currently a free agent although ROH is also in talks to get a new deal done as soon as possible.
• Bobby Heenan recently revealed on Twitter his current favorite wrestler in the WWE is Kevin Owens. https://twitter.com/RealBobbyHeenan/...06590745468929
• According to reports from Japan, Jushin Thunder Liger revealed this year's Best of the Super Jrs Cup will be his last. Feels its the right time to step aside and let the younger stars take over his spot. https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/749018296226189317